Classical
NV5840

BACH CELLO SUITES is a two-disc release from native Romanian cellist Ovidiu Marinescu featuring Johann Sebastian Bach's 6 Suites for Violoncello Solo. Representing the pinnacle of solo cello repertory, the suites on this disc were composed in 1721/22 in Cöthen, Germany. Bach's cello suites follow the trend that developed in mid-18th century German-speaking countries, in which a suite consisted of four stylized dances: the allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. Bach opens each suite with a Prelude and adds a pair of elegant dances between the sarabande and the gigue. The suites have a certain poetic rhetoric - including accentuation, symmetry, and repetition - that is pure logic and elegance. To Marinescu, Bach's music is similar to the rhythms and sounds of the ancient Greek or Roman dramas, akin to Shakespearian rhetoric. The cello suites also have logic and architecture, order and proportion.

The enhanced 2-CD package also includes a downloadable edition of the music with bowings and fingerings based on four handwritten manuscripts and the first published edition of 1824.